The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio José Báez, attacked this Sunday, February 26, against power and tyrants, during his homily transmitted through the social networks from Saint Agatha Parish in Miami, Florida. He also criticized the passivity of citizens in the face of serious social problems.
“Power is a deadly idol, before which tyrants prostrate themselves and to which they offer the freedom and hope of the peoples as a sacrifice,” said Báez, who has been in exile since 2019 on the advice of Pope Francis in the face of fanatic threats. sandinistas
Báez is one of the 317 citizens arbitrarily “denationalized” by the Daniel Ortega regime between February 9 and 15, including the 222 political prisoners exiled to the United States on February 9.
The priest, one of the most critical of the Ortega regime, was included on a list of 94 citizens on February 15, whom the State of Nicaragua described as “traitors to the homeland,” for which they ordered the confiscation of their property and violated their rights as citizens.
The biblical theme of this first Sunday of Lent was the temptation of the Devil to Jesus. Báez analyzed the book of Mateo in a mass in which he was accompanied by some exiled priests such as Edwin Román, Saddiel Eugarrios and Enrique Martínez Gamboa. They all met at the Santa Agatha parish, which has become a meeting point for the Nicaraguan community, based in this sector of the United States.
The Carmelite bishop said that citizens do not become more human when they try to impose themselves and dominate others, that is, when competition and rivalry are assumed as a way of life, causing difficult coexistence, due to internal power struggles.
“Those who use power to exclude, subdue and oppress serve the devil and live on their knees before the devil,” said the religious in an adverse context for the Church in Nicaragua.
The condemnation of Bishop Rolando Álvarez
On February 10, the justice system under the control of Ortega condemned to 26 years and four months to the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, in retaliation for refusing to accept exile. The day before, 222 political prisoners were expelled to the United States as a “unilateral” decision of the dictatorship.
In Nicaraguan jails there are still 35 political prisonersincluding two priests convicted of alleged common crimes: Father Manuel García de Nandaime and Monsignor Leonardo Urbina de Boaco, who were turned into prisoners in trials lacking guarantees.
Báez also questioned that one cannot fall into passivity, an issue on which he has spoken in the past. “It is not enough to pray. You have to commit yourself, take risks, denounce and fight, while trusting without ceasing in the love of God that does not abandon us and always deploys his strength in our weakness ”, he emphasized.
In addition to keeping three priests in jail, Ortega maintains a hate speech against Catholicism, accusing the bishops of coup plotters. He recently banned the Stations of the Cross procession and attacked Pope Francis in his speeches. Last year he expelled the apostolic nuncio and 18 nuns from the order of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
